The day the alien landed was a joyous day. Not in NYC like the movies predicted, nor in DC, nor in a wheat field in Kansas. The alien landed right on the HOLLYWOOD sign. Through every phone and every radio and every tv screen, it proclaimed its mission.

"Hear me, Humans, for I am the great and powerful Jim. I have great power, but I refuse to make any autonomous decisions for I--unlike my ancestors--will not be a tyrant. Doing what I think is best was a slippery slope that led my ancestors to create a reign of terror. I shall make no such mistake. Head my words humans: Until all of your governing bodies agree that an action is in the best interest of humanity I shall take no action."

And so the alien stood on top of the HOLLYWOOD sign. Tragically, humans are a wretched bunch and not government could come to a consensus internally, let alone with other governments.

So the alien waited...and waited..and waited still.

Soon what would be known as the Mega Wildfires and the Super Hurricanes--for Cat 5 was just a distant dream--ravaged the earth. So the alien still stood on the HOLYWOOD sign. Though now it was submerged 1000 meters underwater.

At this point, the alien was elevated to myth in modern society. So much was lost in the Mega Wildfires and the Super Hurricanes that no one could find a concrete source that it existed. Afterall, if there was such a being why couldn't the leaders of old get their act together and save the planet. (The answer being of course that all the countries did...except the United States. A major party within the USA still refused to recognize climate change even as Washington DC was battered by a Tsunami enabled by rising sea levels.)

Out of desperation, all of the countries still remaining agreed that the alien should be located and asked to reverse climate change. For ten glorious minutes, the world was in agreement. However, the issue of finding the alien was discussed. What remained of the USA proudly boasted that the alien was somewhere off their shores in what was once known as "California." Super Korea called it a blatant power grab on the part of the USA. The United Nordic States accused Super Korea of not wanting to find the alien as they had the most to lose. Sides were drawn and the agreement fell to pieces.

As for the Alien, well dear reader, it still stands on top of the HOLYWOOD sign dead as a doorknob. The Alien may have been all-powerful but it couldn't breathe underwater. No global agreement was reached to tell the alien to move and so it died.

I heard from a mate of mine no tougher pirate sails the seas. They say he can breathe fire! Seasons all of his meals with gunpowder and belches flames, just like a monster. Though, mate's half mad since meeting him, too. Must be a terror to drive off a man's wits!

On top of retaining full control of the content you buy, you're voting with your wallet and sending a message that you support DRM free content.

For e-books: This one is tricky. Amazon's dominance of the market (as is my understanding. I am no expert.) means that most of the things one buys on Amazon have DRM. There are exceptions to this. For example, I know that u/doctorow's book Information Doesn't Want to Be Free on Kindle is DRM free.

For Movies & TV: Here you are out of luck. The industry has a stranglehold on when, how, and where you access the content you legally purchased and is unwilling to let go. Your best bets are gog's movie section and archive.org's move section

Music: I'm pretty sure that iTunes no longer encases its songs in DRM, but it has other issues if you're interested in having full control of your content. Bandcamp is always my favorite alternative when available.

If anyone has better links/other information please let me know. I am by no means an expert on this.

So as a boy I went to a boarding school where horrible abuse was taking place. Although nothing was exposed while I attended (unfortunately), the school was broken up just a few years later and faculty members were arrested. The experiences there seriously affected me and I was asking for help the entire time but I was never believed, which made me feel exceptionally isolated and alone. I was being abused but my own family wouldn’t take my word on it.

I was allowed to go home for Christmas and my family went on a ski vacation to Utah. This would be around 1992. I tried to explain what was happening and how miserable I was but again, nobody would believe me or understand my situation. I was suicidal and planning how I could end my life without anybody discovering me or having to deal with the shame of a failed attempt.

… until one day I was riding a ski lift to the top of the mountain, and I met a strangely familiar sounding man with a scarf over his face. He saw that I was miserable and asked me what was wrong.

I didn’t have any trouble opening up about my problems at thirteen. I would blab on and on about them (the problem is that nobody really cared). So I unloaded on this poor guy.

He was the first person who had really noticed the pain I was feeling. My family all thought it was an act to ‘manipulate’ them into letting me come home, but this stranger saw that what I was experiencing was real. He had true genuine compassion for me, and as he explained further, I began to understand why.

He told me that he had a very similar experience when he was younger, that he had gone to a very strict Catholic boarding school. He shared some experiences with me. He understood what I was going through completely. He told me that it would pass; that one day I would be an adult and all of these things would seem very far away. I cried, he told me everything would be alright. I talked to him the entire way up the mountain.

This is the moment I decided to not be suicidal anymore. I lived my entire existence after that point trying to get to that safe adult vantage point that the stranger described to me. I wanted to be like him; alive, whole, and on the other side. Free.

Anyway, as we got to the top of the hill, I saw the stranger’s wife come up to him and recognized her. It was the girl from Cheers (Rhea Pearlman)! And then I placed the voice – Danny Devito, who I had seen in several movies even by the then, but just couldn’t identify on the ski lift.

Everything he said was true. I went on to great things. And all of those horrors seem small in comparison even if they do trouble me sometimes.

Reddit, Danny Devito saved my life. This is not a Bill Murrey ‘nobody will ever believe you’ story – this really happened and changed the course of my history. Danny Devito saw my misery, talked to me like a real human being, and helped me see that I would survive these horrible events. I will always remember what he did for me.

I want to thank him personally. If anybody can help me get a hand-written note to mister Devito, or a phone call, please contact me. I don’t want to pitch Hollywood scripts or gush over his work. I just want to thank him for being a human being, and being there. Unfortunately he's famous as hell and has no idea who I am so it's proven very, very hard.

Anybody who can help me, please contact my inbox. I'm not a Reddit Guru so if you know a better subreddit or something to get attention on this, please let me know as well.

Thanks for listening.

Edit 1: I provided some contact info to the kind mister Schwarzenegger via pm and will update if anything further transpires. I've agonized over sending multiple versions of some sort of letter to the man for several decades... never really knowing where to start and talking myself out of it each time... so it is immensely gratifying to be able to finally get word to him.

Edit 2 (One Month Later): I wish I had more interesting news to offer! But I have heard nothing as of yet. I was in correspondence with an assistant to mister Schwarzenegger who has told me my hand written thank you note can be passed on and I'm in the process of having it delivered. Thank you so much for all of your help and support.

I just went with the T470 and custom configure it. The T470p is the only one that does not come with a USB Type-C. They all come with a finger scanner but the camera is not IR if you want to use Windows 10 Hello. If you are getting the T470 you might be better off buying your own 256GB SSD SATA3(Samsung or good brand) for $100 rather than choosing the 256GB PCIe-NVMe from them. The 256GB PCIe-NVMe might be way faster but that's depend on what you are doing. Another thing is choose the 1920x1080 over the 1366 x 768 pixels screen because from what I have read it have a lower luminance. Anyways 1920x1080 resolution is obviously better if you decided to output it to an external monitor.